Single-person households accounted for around 36 percent of all households in South Korea in 2024, making them the single-largest household category, government data showed Tuesday, Yonhap reports.
Last year, there were 8.05 million households comprising a single person, accounting for 36.1 percent of the country's total households, according to an annual survey on one-person households conducted by the Ministry of Data and Statistics.
Some 29 percent were two-person households, while 18.8 percent were three-person units. The remaining 16 percent were households with four or more members.
The proportion of one-person households increased 0.6 percentage point from a year earlier in 2024, and that of two-person households rose 0.2 percentage point on-year.
In contrast, the proportion of three-person and four-or-more-person households decreased by 0.2 percentage point and 0.8 percentage point, respectively.
By age, 19.8 percent of single-person households were of those aged 70 and above, while 17.8 percent were of those aged 29 and below.
More than 60 percent of one-person households were employed, with some four out of 10 operating small businesses or working in the public service sector.
The average yearly income of people who live alone came to 34.23 million won (US$23,288) in 2024, up 6.2 percent from a year earlier but sharply lower than the average income of all households at 74.27 million won.
The survey showed that 51.1 percent of single-person households were satisfied with their social relations, lower than the corresponding tally of 55.5 percent for all households.
Nearly 49 percent of those who live alone said they often or sometimes feel lonely. The figure was sharply higher compared with 38.2 percent of all households that said so.